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Tom what are your general takeaways from
the debate last night my whole thing is
I do not want to allow myself to get
sucked into the gravitational pull of
politics it's not interesting to me at
all but ideas matter a lot and so seeing
the ideas playing out in this debate I
thought was um really jarring from my
worldview so what I'm seeing happen in
real time is people trying to convince
you that this is a binary political
Choice there are two parties you have to
decide between these two people it's the
one word that I kept hearing people say
in the post debate um sphere was well
it's a binary Choice it's a binary
Choice it's a binary choice but I was
sitting in uh the audience at
rfk's uh version of the debate what they
were calling the real debate that uh God
bless Elon Musk uh for running the risk
of getting sued by CNN for live
broadcasting what they were doing and
giving him a chance to answer um I'm not
anybody's team for this other than the
people who are going to be impacted by
the ideas that this country or any
country Gets behind uh and so I am dized
by the fact that people are letting the
political apparatus hand them a frame of
reference that simply is not true what's
the logic to keep RFK off the stage to
control the frame of reference through
which people look at this so you have uh
the political apparatus St wants you to
choose between Trump or Biden and they
created from my perspective what looks
like a structure for the debate that um
really pitches to the weaknesses of both
parties and so to get those two on a
debate stage together to make sure that
they don't get the Third Party candidate
to make sure that the voting public
feels like oh well these are two
terrible choices but these are the only
choices that we have to create that you
had to create really short form answers
so that Trump could seem normal and
Biden could seem cognizant uh and if you
had put RFK on the stage with them it
would have changed the dynamic so
dramatically um as to completely blow
apart what felt like a controlled frame
of reference that they want the public
to have so sitting in the audience
listening to RFK answer the the tenor
was so starkly different in that he is
somebody that's trying not to come in
and be divisive so you have two people
Trump and Biden arguing about which one
of them was a better president which one
was worse he's a bad guy I'm a good guy
I mean they were both saying stuff at
one point I was legitimately just bored
and if you let the dynamic that RFK
would bring Which is far more policy
based you're going to feel that
differential you're going to feel
viscerally as the audience what it's
like to think think about the ideas
versus thinking about it being a
referendum on the person and that's
probably the same reason the rules have
changed this year right I don't know I
don't pay attention to Politics as the
honest answer so for my entire life all
I did was put my head down and build
businesses and uh as I stepped in front
of a camera eight years ago I really
started to think about being able to
articulate things that I understood
intuitively about growing scaling a
business leading people uh creating
things and that has led me to this idea
that I'm trying to get across that I've
said many times I wanted my Tombstone uh
which is you're having a biological
experience and so I come at these
debates not with some Grand historical
political perspective I come to these
debates understanding how the human mind
works and looking at the political
Machinery trying to leverage the way the
human mind works against people to think
that their choices are limited so that
they can be controlled and I hate how
conspiratorial that sounds but it
actually is true it is true even now as
I'm talking to you I'm trying to control
your frame of reference I practiced
before I stepped in front of this camera
what is the the lens through which I'm
going to look at this whole thing so
that I can put a headline and thumbnail
on the video because if I don't the
algorithm isn't going to pick up this
video everybody is doing this all the
time and so that's the reality the
debate is going to be a structure based
on how they're trying to control your
frame of reference but that will have
always been true do you think it's best
for the American people to have a no
policy debate that seems ridiculous to
me the only thing I want to hear people
talk about are the
ideas uh so if I'm going to um ask
myself to evaluate the candidates if I'm
going to put forth a way that I hope you
guys will evaluate candidates it it is
very simple ideas matter everybody lives
their life through a frame of reference
the very things that we see are
determined not by what we look at
they're determined by our frame of
reference I refer to frame of reference
as Whole Life beer goggles they are wild
distortions to what is really there that
are based on your beliefs your values
your biology because there is a
tremendous amount of us that is
hardwired let's call it 50% that seems
to be what science indicates is 50% of
us is hardwired
so you put all of that together and what
you look at becomes somewhat irrelevant
but your frame of reference is going to
make sure that you see a certain thing
so this stat has always terrified me
humans are only able to perceive
0.0000 35% of the electromagnetic
spectrum that means the thing that you
think of as being everything is less
than half of 1% so we then interpret it
and assume that we're seeing everything
but that just just isn't the reality so
once you understand we are all in the
grips of a set of ideas you understand
this is why people say that politics is
Downstream of culture culture is just a
cool way of saying the way that we
package ideas could be a song could be a
movie uh could be the debate over
minimum wage but all of that ball that
we call culture is transmitting ideas
those ideas shape again not what we look
at but what we see
so should we be worried that politics is
turning into what magicians call a force
like where do you nudge people to pick
one of the few cards like the Ace of
Spades or queen of hearts okay so uh
Magic has this concept that I think is
really cool called a force where you can
actually get somebody to pick a card
through slide of hand that you want them
to pick they believe that they are
choosing via free will but in reality
you have dramatically increased the odds
that they will pick a very specific card
if you don't believe me just type in
magicians force or magicians classic
Force into YouTube you will get all
kinds of videos that show you exactly
how this is done so all of life is that
and I wish that I could say that any of
us are above that but the reality is
that your brain is telling you what not
to pay attention to there is a reason
that you only see less than half of a
percent of the electromagnetic spectrum
because if you tried to decipher Reality
by going there are X number of photons
falling on my left shoulder in a given
spectrum and trying to figure out then
what the thing is that that shape makes
you'd never be able to get anywhere so
you just look at my shoulder and you go
that t-shirt is black that's it your
brain is a heuristic engine so what I
really try to remind myself of is to not
get sucked into the center of the
political debate but instead to step
back and look at how everything is a
simplification
Everything is misdirection Everything is
trying to get you to focus on what they
want you to focus on and so that
terrifies me
because you can tell a lie in public
forcefully you could even say I know
this is a lie and it will still work
because you're now getting people to
debate the LIE instead of debating that
this is a binary Choice when it's not it
should be a debate of ideas and if the
political Machinery were
to become less
dysfunctional it would have to become
about the ideas now you have to limit
the field so I get it I get why you
don't let anybody up on the debate stage
but to not have the Third Party
candidate up on the debate stage that
people can hear all of these ideas
clashing into each other so they can
decide what the best ideas are instead
of just picking one person which again
is just a way of narrowing the field so
should we be worried about this like on
an existential Threat Level I mean this
isn't democracy anymore right okay so
the reality is nothing is ever as bad as
you fear it's going to be and nothing is
ever as good as you hope it's going to
be in the acute moments now in Long arcs
things can get more terrifying than I
think people realize and so there there
is a moment at which something truly
becomes
existential uh I highly encourage people
to read there three books that have
wildly influenced my frame of reference
uh and that is the gulag archipelago the
rise and fall of the Third Reich and Mao
the unknown story it
is shocking how wrong things can go when
a populace gets in the grips of what
I'll call the big lie where you just
start out of fear lying about everything
and it is terrifying that you can scare
people enough that they will lie just to
keep themselves and others safe I think
that's a completely natural human
reaction and as we go farther and
farther down the slope of the big lie I
think that it could truly get
existential but I also think it is
incredibly important to remind yourself
that right now if you live in the
Western World the odds that when you
step outside it's beautiful man that
your life is full of people that you
love that you can get on with your life
I'm going to at at the end of this video
I'm going to go do amazing things with
amazing people and it is really awesome
and to lose sight of that frame of
reference is a way to spin yourself out
of control to lose sight of something
that is objectively real which is that
life is full of beauty and wonderment
and joy and connection and passion all
of those things are also real this is
why you have to resist the pull of
somebody trying to yank you into this is
a an existential threat this is an
existential threat to democracy etc
etc step back and
say every day I'm choosing to be in the
grips of certain ideas what ideas do I
want to be in the grips of if one of the
ideas that you are not in the grips of
is that love is real and love is
beautiful and love is wonderful and love
is right here if I choose to look at it
and I choose to see it you're in trouble
if you also choose to blind yourself to
the fact that if you lie accept the lies
of others uh that that does lead down a
slippery slope you are also in trouble
but you don't want to be myopically
focused on either the game is to resist
somebody else's
frame but you can't believe that there
are not consequences to bad ideas
winning and right now politics is filled
with
them yes that's true life is full of bad
ideas non-stop morning noon and night
that's why I'm exceedingly grateful to
be living in a time now where you can
access YouTube uh I was very glad that
Elon Musk bought Twitter I think it is
exceptionally important that people
fight for the First Amendment so that
ideas can be heard so that people can
make up their own mind about those ideas
I think it is extremely dangerous from
second and third order consequences to
be paternalistic and to think I'm going
to go think for people um I think it is
it is simply true that some people do
not have the intellect to process
through ideas well but I think it is
also true that when you try to put ideas
down people's throats from the top down
that is tyrannical now I have a frame of
reference and I'll try to confess it
whenever I can uh my frame of reference
is that top down tyranny is as bad as it
gets and that we really do have to
accept that there are going to be people
that we believe are looking at the same
data that we're looking at and drawing
terrifyingly bad conclusions that are
extraordinarily dangerous and even in
that moment we have to keep the ideas
front and center we have to let them be
debated we have to let people say what
they believe to be true and that the
First Amendment ultimately is about
allowing people to say things that you
absolutely despise and that quite
frankly you think are dangerous now I'm
not a free speech absolutist I do
believe there should be lines I think
that the US Supreme Court has already
addressed this I'm per perfectly happy
with where where they've drawn the
lines um but
ultimately people should live in the
greatest fear of people not being able
to say what they believe to be true and
I think that the reason that we're now
living in the age of conspiracy is
during the covid period more than any
other time certainly that I've been
alive people even hyper credible people
were told that they weren't allowed to
discuss something and that's the
dangerous idea that I think leads people
in into a very troubling space so if I
just turned 18 how would you coach me on
how to navigate these ideas in order to
form my own opinions after the debate
the most important thing that people
have to do is answer the question where
am I trying to end up you have to know
what your Northstar is you have to
understand the destination you were
trying to achieve and if you're looking
at the political realities of electing a
president or local representative or
somebody on the school board first ask
yourself what am I trying to achieve
what ideas do I think yield the best
outcomes so I'll give you an example for
me the answer is human flourishing now
of course you could have hours long
debate about what that means and how you
define it but you have to have something
so for me human flourishing is the
largest number of people humanly
possible being able to achieve
fulfillment fulfillment to me is working
very hard to gain a set of skills that
matter to you you that allow you to
uplift yourself and others I think that
people should have honorable goals
honorable defined as simply as that it
elevates not only yourself but others as
well so that's where I'm trying to get
to now it's a question of what ideas are
likely to allow for the most people to
achieve that and then if we're talking
about a political election which of
those people embodies those ideas and if
that person is unable to debate and
articulate their ideas you have a
problem you you really do have to hunger
to find out where the edges of your own
thinking and beliefs are and one of the
biggest mistakes dear 18-year-old trying
to think your way through all this stuff
that you could make is to build your
self-esteem around being right to think
of yourself as better faster stronger
smarter the thing that changed my life
and
completely dominates how I look at
everything in life is that I see myself
as the learner so I've been on stage I
mean a hundred times at this point I've
been in front of the camera for
thousands of hours I've done my own
podcasts I've been on other people's
podcasts and very often people will ask
you is there anything off limits and not
once ever have I said that anything is
off limits and that's when I'm on stage
and there is literally nowhere to hide
there is no way to edit it like you're
there you are naked and exposed the
reason that I do that is I cannot help
but win because either I'm going to put
forth ideas that I really believe in
that will hopefully positively impact
other people's lives or I'm going to
find the edges of my own thinking I'm
going to find that place where oo I
thought that idea was good I was
actually living in accordance with that
idea but somebody shown me that uh
actually that idea begins to break down
because I am obsessed with utility
meaning what ideas what behaviors what
actions actually lead to my Northstar
outcome of human flourishing my own and
others okay cool I actually believe that
I can identify the beliefs that will
cause the right behaviors that will lead
to the right outcomes therefore I want
to know where my thinking is going wrong
so if you build your self-esteem around
being the learner and you hunger for
disconfirming evidence because it will
sharpen your thinking which will then
have the knock on effect of you having
better behaviors in your life then
you're going to win so that frame will
serve you incredibly well it is
seemingly very difficult to do because
we seem to have a default setting that
just wants us to already be good amazing
awesome whatever but man if you can
build your self-esteem around
identifying the right answer instead of
being right you will go far so from a
policy perspective did you feel like any
candidate actually showcased values that
align with human
flourishing of the people that I saw
baate I have my belief of which one I
think makes the most
sense because I really distrust myself I
don't want to be on a tie raid about
listen to me and go um vote for this
person so what I would rather do though
I will answer that question at the end
of this because I hate it when people
Dodge questions but first let me lay out
what I really hope people take away from
me
what I hope you take away from me is a
way to think through difficult
problems the reason I say that I
distrust myself is because I know that
if you selectively damage the area of a
human's brain that controls emotions
they will become pathologically
incapable of making a decision now I
hope you find that as fascinating as I
find it because it begs the question why
they're normal in every respect you
wouldn't know that this person didn't
have emot
until you say hey what do you want to
have for lunch and they can break down
what they like about fish why fish would
make an amazing choice they can talk
about uh vegan options and how um
advantageous that can be and then when
you say cool you've laid out some great
options but which one do you want they
can't make a decision the reason they
can't make a decision goes back to this
idea of heuristics one of the most
important commonly used heris that
humans use is how do I feel about it how
do I feel about having a fish meal right
now how do I feel about having a vegan
meal how do I feel about this candidate
now how you feel about that candidate
may have nothing to do with their
ability to drive you towards your North
Star you may not have even defined what
your Northstar is and so what I want
myself to always remember to do and
hopefully this is useful for other
people is I have a
Northstar whether I get to that
Northstar or not will be guided by my
behaviors my behaviors are completely
controlled by my values and my beliefs
which is another way of saying ideas so
ideas are going to govern the positive
outcome of my life so which ideas are
going to be the most fruitful and then
you have to construct and this is why
people use her istics because this stuff
takes time and energy but you have to
construct a very conscious set of values
and beliefs you have to drag them into
the light you have to Define them you
have to write them down you have to be
able to articulate them but if you can
then all of a sudden people can't suck
you into their frame because you're like
hold on a second that does not match my
vision of the world which I've spent a
lot of time thinking about mapping out
and have proven to myself over time that
it leads me to the positive outcome that
I'm looking for in my life so before you
give us your candidate can you Steelman
all the candidates thinking the best way
you can
sure uh and I think this is a
tremendously useful way to approach the
world you want to be able to steal man
people's position in a way that they
would recognize because when you can
articulate their position in a way where
they will say you understand my position
perfectly now when you come at them and
say hey you just agreed that I
understand your position perfectly and
now here's my take and I say this not
because I don't understand your position
I say it because even though I
understand it I disagree with it now
when two intelligent well-meaning people
disagree they have usually either a
collision of values or a different base
assumption meaning base assumptions are
beliefs about how you believe the world
actually is values are beliefs about how
you believe the world ought to be so
you're colliding on one of those
abortion it's a collision of how people
believe the world ought to be base
assumptions is
uh politics it's almost always values
but base assumptions would be around
economic things right I believe that by
printing money this is modern monetary
Theory by printing more money you can
actually keep the economy moving you can
uh make sure that there's never any
depressions ever again we can always
stabilize money uh by printing okay that
that is either true or it's not and it
will show up in the data and the
converse of that point would be that
printing money creates inflation and
inflation has a whole host of problems
we don't have to get into it in this uh
conversation but I have some real strong
feelings about that uh so understanding
those two differences okay so here is my
breakdown of a Steel Man of the three
different candidates uh Biden's position
is that the economy was better under him
that he is an honest man that you can
trust to tell you the way that things
are that Trump is a pathological liar uh
that you can't trust TR anything that's
coming out of his mouth that if you look
at how Trump had left him with a
terrible economy coming into his um his
time as president that you understand
why the economy is bad now the economy
is bad now because president Trump did
incredibly irresponsible things in his
term in office and that Biden is trying
to make up for that he also believes
that Trump is an existential threat to
democracy that Trump is by being a liar
and being unethical and being bombastic
that he is um heading us in a very
dangerous Direction in terms of how he
would handle foreign conflicts um and
that overall he just can't be trusted
and that whether he is elected or not
that he is not going to peacefully
transition power uh and so he really
believes that to save America we have to
keep Trump out of office Trump his
position is is that hey everything that
I was doing as a businessman really
understanding um how to be strong for
America to not let other countries push
us around to not let NATO force us to
pay all the bills and reap none of the
benefits um that we really have opened
ourselves up to just devastating
consequences on the international stage
by being weak he believes that Biden is
very weak from a foreign perspective
that our adversaries want to take advant
of us um while he doesn't use these
words at least I've never heard it um he
has a somewhat realist perspective so if
you know John mimer uh you'll get a
sense of what that is this this is in no
way me saying that John mimer agrees
with a single word that Trump says but
just to give you that sense of um Power
is a huge part of the political game and
that if you are not strong people are
going to take advantage of you and you
really have to project that strength uh
he believes that he had created a an
incredible economy by better
understanding taxes and how to create
tax incentives that get people uh
growing companies and creating
opportunities he understood tariffs
better so that he could get other
countries to pay their fair share so
that we didn't have this insane trade
deficit and so he believes that had it
not been for covid that he would have
been reelected in a landslide because
people would have understand how good
the economy was and that Biden is using
law fair to keep him out of office a
second time that he does not believe
that Biden uh believes that he can win
in a free and fair election and is
therefore trying to rig it with all of
this law fair um and just trying to keep
Trump down and Meed in all this
litigation RFK has a um a different
frame of reference which is he does not
want to be divisive he very much wants
to focus on the issues he believes that
there are a handful of issues that both
Biden and Trump have made catastrophic
errors on namely economics so you've got
both uh Trump and Biden having printed
just astonishingly unprecedented amounts
of money that that is going to create an
an economic Cascade that will devastate
not only the current generation but
future Generations even more that we are
bankrupting our company our country
through debt and that that's going to um
create very dramatic problems with the
things that we owe people in terms of
Medicare Medicaid the social services
that we have for people um he is very
focused on the things that we need to do
to uh win back moral Authority on the
international stage um and also just
believes that the great threat to
democracy is not letting all ideas be
heard and has talked very passionately
about how hard people have worked to
keep him off of the stage to stop people
from hearing his ideas now now I think
that all three of those candidates would
recognize while a very truncated version
uh of what they stand for that is my
sincere attempt to represent their views
in a way that they would all agree with
okay so here are some rapid fire
questions and try to keep the answers
now do you want to let me get away with
not telling you which ideas I think are
best because I still have dodged that
question which I'm perfectly happy to
keep doing uh no I I hate it when people
Dodge questions so I will say very
concisely um that I have seen a trump
presidency I have seen a Biden
presidency and I would like to see
something new okay rapid fire questions
and try to keep the answers as short as
possible my forte who had the best
soundbite after the debate RFK which
candidate should be the most worried
Biden will we be in a world war in the
next two years no has your view of CNN
changed after this debate
yes what was the funniest
moment oh God this is so dark uh the
funniest moment was when um Trump was
saying uh I don't know what he said
there at the end of the sentence and I
don't think he does either that was the
funniest but like in a dark dark comedy
way the funniest and the most obnoxious
way was when they're arguing about golf
swings uh that was atrocious and if you
watch the quote unquote real debate with
RFK he had a great Zinger that was
hilarious where he said I really want to
be a part of the challenge meaning the
physical golf swing challenge because
needless to say RFK is in far better
shape than either of the other two what
was the best meme you saw coming from
this debate uh when I walked out of the
room I curled into a cocoon uh and did
not look at any memes so I haven't seen
any so and after this debate have you
started looking for international real
estate
okay so this is where it's a funny
question but this is where I will say um
I really believe in America and I love
America and I don't think that we're um
we we are on a slippery slope there is
plenty of time to back out there's
plenty of time to promote good ideas uh
and so I am very uh committed to this
country I have no plans to leave the
country have I thought very serious
viously about going to a more tax
friendly State yes uh but that is
certainly the businessman and me um I
think it's wonderful and I think Ray
Delio has summed it up the best when he
said Tom the only thing that matters is
how people are with each other and so I
think it's important for us all to
remember that people act fundamentally
differently online than they do out in
the real world so go out in the real
world um there's this Buddhist thing
called loving kindness meditation and it
is literally filling your heart with
love for other people people start with
people that you know start with then
spread beyond that to people that you
kind of know uh then go beyond that to
people that you know in name only and
then you just eventually go beyond that
to everybody and it really does create
the sense of expansion inside yourself
you just you don't feel contracted you
feel expansive it feels awesome and I
think if people understand that's just
an idea it's an idea that you're using
to manipulate your own brain chemistry
but when you do it now you suddenly see
something very differently when you look
out at the world and so given my extreme
belief and the power of Independent
Media and all these ideas being able to
work their way out into the public if we
can get people to just say hey when I
adopt this idea I feel better or worse
and when I adopt this idea I feel better
or worse then hopefully we can steer
towards better ideas any final
thoughts life's amazing
you have to put time and energy if you
want to get better at something you can
control the frame of reference of your
own life to Ure that you move towards
something positive just make sure you
know where you want to end up and then
judge every step you make based on
whether it took you closer to that end
or farther away if closer do more of it
if farther away change all right
everybody that is my take on this
current moment if you feel like you are
being manipulated by the political
Machinery it's because you are so make
sure that you understand the mechanisms
by which this works it's all about ideas
if you step back formulate your own
method of thinking if you know your own
values you know your beliefs then you
can look at the field of ideas
objectively and decide which of those
you believe is most likely to lead you
to the positive outcome I hope that
you're looking for uh and then we can
all stay sane and spread a lot more love
and not get into to all of the division
if you want to hear me speak on specific
topics be sure to drop it into the feed
let me know uh what ideas you want to
hear discuss until then my friends be
legendary take care peace